A man accused of suffocating his four-year-old son has been released with special conditions after posting bail, and is allowed to have supervised visits with the child.
Mark Brown, 39, of Shelburne had a hearing in Greenfield District Court Thursday, where his special conditions of release were modified.
Having posted $1,000 cash bail on Dec. 26, Brown was given conditions prohibiting contact with anyone under the age of 16, including the alleged victim, as well as with any witnesses in the case. Thursday, those conditions were modified to allow Brown visits with his son once a week under supervision by the Massachusetts Department of Children & Families.
On Jan. 11 — after Brown posted bail, but before the terms of release were modified — Judge William F. Mazanec III allowed funds for an independent investigation into the alleged incident.
Brown was arrested on Dec. 21 and charged with assault and battery on a child with substantial injury, reckless endangerment of a child and strangulation or suffocation causing serious bodily injury. His son had been placed in state custody the day before, after showing up to Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School with petechial hemorrhaging on his cheeks and eyes, a sign of suffocation.
It was Brown’s girlfriend’s ex-husband, David Herrera, who dressed and took the child to school that day and told the school’s guidance counselor the child was not acting like himself, and, when asked, said his father had suffocated him.
The preschooler then told state police and investigators from the Massachusetts Department of Child & Families the same. A subsequent examination by a doctor at the UMass-Memorial Medical Center in Worcester told police that the petechial hemorrhaging — small red dot marks — were consistent with physical abuse, specifically suffocation.
The child made statements like, “I do not feel safe at my dad’s,” and, “He covered my mouth, and I couldn’t breathe,” throughout several interviews.
He gave details, like being in his bedroom alone when his father came in and used one hand to hold him down and one hand to cover his mouth and nose. When asked if abuse had occurred before, the child said it had happened “a whole bunch of times.”
According to a police narrative by Trooper Gary Darling, the school was particularly concerned due to past DCF involvement with the child. Brown has had no prior “court involvement,” according to Mazanec.
Strangulation or suffocation has only been a chargeable offense since 2014, when Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill that created new criminal charges related to domestic violence. Prior to the bill’s passage, suffocation or strangulation was simple assault and battery, a misdemeanor, unless the defendant was charged with attempted murder.
Brown is due back in court on March 25 for a pretrial conference.